<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>For Old Times' Sake by GretchenSinister</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22501483">For Old Times' Sake</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister'>GretchenSinister</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rise of the Guardians (2012)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 17:54:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,331</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22501483</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Original Prompt: "Bunnymud and Pitch are in a relationship. What are they like together, their dynamics? Do the other guardians know? Do they try to out-snark each other?<br/>I just think these two would be interesting together, but I haven’t seen anything with them."</p><p>For this, I have Bunny seeking out Pitch after his defeat. Pitch has a hope that Bunny’s not going to fulfill. They were together in the past, but it’s unclear if they’ll be together in the future.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>E. Aster Bunnymund/Pitch Black</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Dark Chocolate Short Fics</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>For Old Times' Sake</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Originally posted on Tumblr on 5/2/2016.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p></p><div class="text post-content">
  <p>Bunny pressed his foot to the bare patch of hard ground, but didn’t tap. A route through the Warren wouldn’t do him any good here—there was no telling what might happen. The place he was trying to get to might not be how he remembered it. And besides. Bunny rolled his shoulders. He was still pretty angry. It’d be good to work off some of that energy following what he’d felt.<br/><br/>He crouched down, tossed aside a few broken pieces of wood, and began to dig.<br/><br/>When he finally broke through, he wasn’t attacked, though that was far from a definite good sign. Especially since the hope he had been following hadn’t gotten any stronger when he opened a hole to the cavern, and extra especially since no light fell into the space save the cloudy daylight that had entered with Bunny’s claws.<br/><br/>He didn’t think that the nightmares were patient enough to wait to attack, especially if they weren’t being controlled, but you never knew. Not with Pitch, certainly, and so definitely not with the things he’d made.<br/><br/>He made the opening a little wider and, with a tense crawling feeling all up and down his spine, stuck his head into the utter blackness. Nothing happened, and nothing happened, and nothing happened. Bunny held his breath and did nothing but listen to the way the slight breeze from the surface moved around the space for long minutes. “All right,” he said, using his first new breath, “if this is a trap, you’re going to be sorry.”<br/><br/>He sort of wanted it to be a trap. It would be easier to handle than the hope he had felt being genuine.<br/><br/>Even when he jumped down, knowing the shape of the room only from the way the wind had moved through the cavern, he landed safely, and nothing came to attack him. He sighed, and paused again, listening to the wind, feeling for the hope he had sensed. What he heard and felt guided him over and under vast, fallen blocks of stone, across tilted platforms that were unsettlingly empty of anything at all, under swinging iron cages, and finally to a narrow passage in the rock.<br/><br/>Bunny wasn’t claustrophobic, but he’d be utterly blind in there, with no wind. That wasn’t a good idea in Pitch’s realm, but, well, he’d come this far. It was late autumn in the northern hemisphere anyway. If he got killed, he’d only be out of the world for a few months. “That is, if death’s what I’m given,” he muttered to himself. He squared his shoulders and moved into the passageway.<br/><br/>And still nothing happened. The floor was gritty with sand under his feet, and he couldn’t tell whether it was ordinary or leftover nightmare sand. It felt utterly ordinary, but he didn’t have a lot of experience with nightmare sand, even dead nightmare sand, if that’s what this was.<br/><br/>Finally, a space opened off to his right. And he knew at once that this was where Pitch was. The sense of hope, such as it was, was stronger here than ever.<br/><br/>Bunny’s ears twitched. He couldn’t even hear Pitch breathing. True, he didn’t need to, but without breath, he couldn’t talk, and if he couldn’t talk, well, that wasn’t much like Pitch. But then again, Bunny had never felt this kind of hope from Pitch before, either. He only recognized who it belonged to because of their long familiarity.<br/><br/>“You’re going to make me do something I hate to do,” Bunny said.<br/><br/>Now, a breath. “Finally. It’s been months. Knew it wouldn’t be Sandy, I haven’t been able to sleep. Knew it wouldn’t be North, there’s no wonder in this. Thought it might be Tooth, since she could have looked in the one she got out of my mouth. Wondered about Jack, too, but he’s <em>so</em> soft-hearted he would have been useless. But you…it wasn’t even a ruse that I hoped it would be you,” Pitch said. He gave a slow, slow sigh. “For old times’ sake. Yes, you’ll do it. I’m surprised you say you’re going to hate it.”<br/><br/>“No,” Bunny said. “You’ve got it wrong. You’ve been hoping I’ll kill you, and the thing I hate doing is dashing hopes, of any sort. Especially when I have to do it personally.”<br/><br/>“What!”<br/><br/>Bunny couldn’t stop a little smile from appearing on his face. That sounded more like Pitch.<br/><br/>“You bastard,” Pitch said, dragging it out, making it singsong. “Couldn’t have even waited for it to have turned into despair naturally, could you?”<br/><br/>“Thing is, I also hate the idea of leaving you alive, with a hope like that,” Bunny said. “But I’m not going to kill you because I don’t want you to be dead. For old times’ sake.”<br/><br/>“I’d slice you in two if I had the strength to do anything but lie here,” Pitch said. “You can’t care about that anymore. I got you walked through. I ruined Easter. Completely! Isn’t that enough to make you want to kill me?”<br/><br/>There was a plea in his voice, and Bunny’s ears drooped. He knew well enough not to call attention to it, though. “Come on, Pitch. I didn’t even die a little bit with all that. And you—you’re talking about being gone for good, aren’t you? Nah, you didn’t do anything to deserve that.”<br/><br/>“Then what do I deserve?” Pitch snapped. “I don’t like being stuck here, powerless and fading! You—you know how I could be. Did I really…did I really make you hate that version of me so much?”<br/><br/>“Well, you certainly tried,” Bunny said. “Look, Pitch. The thing is, I can’t ignore you. I’ll probably never be able to, and I don’t think I want to.” He crouched down beside him and reached out to touch his arm.<br/><br/>“At this point your touch burns,” Pitch said, sounding exhausted. Bunny took his hand away and Pitch sighed. “Why bother? And…”<br/><br/>“And maybe it’s worth it to you?” Bunny asked. “And I bother because I don’t want to be cruel. Yeah, again—for old times’ sake. Pitch. I don’t know if we can go back, I don’t know if I want to, and I don’t know if I should want to. But shouldn’t we at least try to move forward?”<br/><br/>“Would you really let me move forward?” Pitch asked, his voice heavy with scorn. “I have to be the boogeyman, and you’ve done all you can to prevent me from being at my best. If I move forward, I’m going to have to get better or vanish, and if I get better I won’t be on your side.”<br/><br/>“Well, I know you’re not going to be on the Guardians’ side,” Bunny said. He smiled, even though he knew that Pitch could likely see it. A different hope had finally sprouted within Pitch. “But, then again, you never were.”<br/><br/>“Bunny. I know…I know there’s a lot we need to talk about, if…” Pitch gave a hoarse laugh. “If! You’re a dangerous influence. The thing is, though…I’m not really up to talking about anything. At this point, either kill me or help me get better. And if you don’t decide quickly I won’t forgive you.”<br/><br/>“Well, all right.” Bunny tilted his head. “Brace yourself, because you’re not walking out of here and I’m not opening a direct tunnel.”<br/><br/></p>
  <hr/>
  <p><br/><br/>Pitch rested his head against Bunny’s chest, his eyes squinted shut against the starlight, as Bunny carried him away from his lair. “Maybe I should have known you were the one who was going to come because I could trust you to make a bad decision.”<br/><br/>“Hey,” said Bunny. “At least I’m not burning you anymore. You’re getting better already.”<br/><br/>“No I’m not,” said Pitch. “But don’t—don’t drop me. And I…I can still feel your fur underneath any other sensation. You’re still…soft.”<br/><br/>“Well, you knew that as soon as I picked you up,” Bunny said.</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Tags and Comments from Tumblr:</p><p>#this pairing lends itself to the slowest of slow builds I think</p><p>t-ggs96 said: I like it. It’s certainly interesting reading a pairing such as this. I’m sorry that I don’t have too much to say but I honestly did enjoy reading this.</p><p>bowlingforgerbils said: This was beautiful and sad. Pitch’s hope. :( This pairing seems the most difficult to pull off, imho, which is probably why there’s so little of it. I like what you did!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>